Onshore Wind Energy Development Research Articles

Environmental Assessment of Onshore Wind Energy Plans in Germany and Scotland: A Procedural Compliance with Respect to Integration of Climate Change Impacts

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) provides an opportunity to integrate climate change issues into renewable energy plans to mitigate the effects of climate change. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the extent to which climate change issues are incorporated into SEAs of onshore wind energy plans in Germany and Scotland. To achieve our objective, we employed a modified version of the Lee and Colley review package to analyse SEA reports. The combined results of our analysis show that 49% and approximately 45% of the overall tasks performed in all the review areas in terms of climate change integration in the documents reviewed were considered satisfactory for Germany and Scotland, respectively. In order to effectively consider the climate change impacts in SEAs and to efficiently plan for onshore wind energy development, due consideration should be given to the adoption of diverse methodological approaches and models of climate change.

Energiegerechtigkeit im Windenergieausbau – Finanzielle Teilhabe als Möglichkeit zur Stärkung lokaler Akzeptanz?

Onshore wind energy development is often delayed or even prevented by local resistance. Against this backdrop, we discuss financial participation as a measure to promote local acceptance by positively influencing the perceived experience of justice. Building on the concept of energy justice, this paper investigates the extent to which different forms of financial participation are suitable for better distributing costs and benefits, creating opportunities for participation, and examining who can participate financially. In addition to a comprehensive literature review, interviews were conducted with wind turbine planners and operators. These show that stakeholders engage in financial participation to different degrees across different projects and that the preferred form of participation varies from one region to another. Moreover, no model of financial participation appears to be suited to address all dimensions of energy justice, as all models are characterised by certain advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the availability of financial participation options alone is unlikely to increase local acceptance. Such options can, however, be effective when combined with other measures to increase acceptance.

Conceptualizing the patterns of land use conflicts in wind energy development: Towards a typology and implications for practice

The continued expansion of the wind energy sector with wind turbines growing in number and size has significantly altered landscapes and brought about more sitting controversies and land use conflicts. The novel contribution of this study to the wind energy acceptance debate is in identifying and classifying relationships among specific conflict parties (actors and their coalitions), conflict issues (arguments or claims the parties use in opposition) and project characteristics in onshore wind energy development. The results are based on a comprehensive analysis of 38 case studies from Spain and the Czech Republic (a leader and a laggard in wind energy development in Europe) applying an explanatory sequential research design, involving document analysis, interviews and multivariate statistics. In spite of essential differences between the countries in their geographies and the scale and spatial diffusion of wind farms, most parties and issues emerging in wind energy conflicts are common in both countries. We have identified six components of conflict issues (nature preservation; distributional injustice; property and conveniences; proportions; health concerns; and landscape values and functions), five clusters of conflict parties (i.e., coalitions of actors), and we propose a generic typology of wind energy conflicts (between neighbors conflicts; intra-municipal conflicts; residents vs. second-home owners, municipalities vs. developers; and conflicts of hierarchical powers). The conclusions include recommendations on what planners and developers in both countries can learn from each other and what measures and practices to put in place to minimize possible conflicts in further wind energy development.

Quantifying the land-based opportunity carbon costs of onshore wind farms

The development of onshore wind energy impacts the land where it is constructed, together with competition for natural resources between the energy and land sector. The loss of terrestrial carbon stocks and ecosystem services from land use change to wind farms can be interpreted as the opportunity cost that landowners give up by choosing to construct wind farms on their land. Here, we spatially quantify the impact onshore wind farms have on land when we factor in the opportunity carbon (C) costs. We found that, the construction of 3848 wind turbines in Scotland generated 4.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from land use change. On average the emission intensity of land use change in peatland is 560 g CO 2 kWh −1 , in forestry is 88 g CO 2 kWh −1 , in cropland is 45 g CO 2 kWh −1 , and in pastureland is 30 g CO 2 kWh −1 . In the worst land use change scenario, the displacement of Dystrophic basin peat habitats generated 1760 g CO 2 kWh −1 , which is comparable to the life cycle emissions of fossil-fuel technologies such as coal and gas-fired electricity generation. In arable land, the loss of harvestable crop to wind power was forfeited for a gain in opportunity costs up to £15.4 million over a 25 year operating life. Considering the short-term value of CO 2 in the trading market, the opportunity carbon costs of onshore wind farms can range from £0.3 to £65.0 per MWh of electricity generated per year. These findings highlight that the preservation of terrestrial carbon stocks and crop production in the land sector require the development of new payment schemes that can compete economically against the monetary benefits that landowners can access from lease agreements agreed with energy companies. This ensures also that wind turbines are geographically placed to protect ecosystem C stocks, and to minimize the carbon intensity of the electricity generated. • The displacement of terrestrial carbon stocks is crucial to quantifying the environmental impact of onshore wind energy. • Direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions are quantified spatially based on land cover types and wind farm characteristics. • Emissions of land use change from the construction of 3848 wind turbines across Scotland vary from 16 g CO 2 kWh −1 in shrubland to 1760 g CO 2 kWh −1 in peatland. • Opportunity costs of onshore wind farms range from £0.30 to £65.0 per MWh of electricity generated per year.

Meeting the Challenges of Safety Management in Wind Energy Industry

Abstract: Countries promoting renewable energies encounter a variety of phenomena that can challenge the implementation of further onshore wind energy development. Those challenges can be observed in many multi-level governance systems, as exhibited in the U.S., Germany, and Mexico, where various regulatory and institutional levels must agree on goals and responsibilities. (1) Political and market phenomena, (2) siting issues, (3) the green vs. green dilemma, and (4) social acceptance are selected challenges within the different levels of decision-making processes in wind energy implementation. In this paper these challenges can enhance outlooks in policy and planning, posing solutions to wind energy challenges even in sensitive environments and triggering innovations such as adaptive management. Keywords: Governance, Renewable Energies, Wind Energy, Triggering.4

Key factors influencing onshore wind energy development: A case study from the German North Sea region

The aim of this paper is to identify facilitating and hindering factors for onshore wind energy development near natural conservation regions, in particular in Lower Saxony's Wattenmeer region. An applied research approach was deployed to connect individual aspects of wind energy technology and establish a cross-disciplinary perspective on the expansion of wind energy. To this end, relevant facilitating and hindering factors were identified and then validated by a group of academic experts. The main factors were grouped within the framework of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In a subsequent step, a sample of experts in the wind power sector evaluated the relative importance of the key factors, using an Analytic Hierarchy Process. The results show that factors positively influencing wind energy expansion exceed the hindering factors. Wind electricity is likely to benefit from opportunities such as climate change and from industry-specific strengths, for instance the competitiveness of wind in the German electricity market. Barriers and uncertainties that influence the further development of the sector relate to strict ecological protection laws and limited spatial opportunities for new projects. Finally, basic policy strategies were formulated which aim at fostering strengths and opportunities of wind energy development and at reducing weaknesses and threats.

Life-cycle impacts of wind energy development on bird diversity in Norway

While wind energy remains a preferred source of renewable energy, understanding the full spectrum of impacts are vital to balance climate-related benefits against their costs to biodiversity. Environmental impact assessments often fail to assess cumulative effects at larger spatial scales. In this respect, life cycle assessments are better suited, but have to date mainly focused on greenhouse gas emissions and energy accounting. Here, we adapt a recent global life-cycle impact assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate collision, disturbance and habitat loss impacts of onshore wind energy development on bird species richness in Norway. The advantage of a local model for Norway is that it enables employing species distribution models to more accurately estimate the potential distribution area of species. This facilitates more realistic site- and species-specific assessments of potential impacts within a local scale but excludes habitat ranges outside Norway. Furthermore, a new characterization factor was developed for potential barrier effects. Larger onshore wind-power plants overall had greater site-specific potentially disappeared fractions (PDF) of species, while smaller plants were less efficiently located with greater impacts per GWh. Overall, Norwegian wind-power plants were sited least efficiently (PDF/GWh) regarding indirect habitat loss (2.186 × 10−9) and disturbance (1.219 × 10−9), followed by direct habitat loss (0.932 × 10−9), and finally collisions (0.040 × 10−9) and barriers (0.310 × 10−9). Vulnerability differed among bird groups with seabirds, raptors and waterfowl emerging as the most impacted groups (e.g. 5.143 × 10−9, 3.409 × 10−9 and 3.139 × 10−9 PDF/GWh for disturbance, respectively); highlighting the sympatric distribution of their habitats and the majority of Norway's onshore wind-power plants. Current practice has not succeeded in avoiding sites with higher impacts for birds, fuelling conflicts surrounding environmental concerns of onshore wind energy development in Norway. Operative LCA models can help decision-makers assessing localized life-cycle environmental impacts to support environmental-friendly wind energy production in specific regions.

Adaptive responses to landscape changes from onshore wind energy development in the Republic of Ireland

Covering 26 years of Irish onshore wind energy development, this article tracks patterns in landscape changes from wind farm construction and identifies adaptive responses in public policy and by stakeholder groups. Wind farms face well-documented challenges with social acceptance due to landscape changes; however, little research has examined interactions between landscape change and social adaptations over the long-term. This article systematically reviews 20 policy documents, undertakes spatio-temporal linear modeling of 212 wind farms using 9 landscape change metrics, and analyzes 5 stakeholder group interviews on adaptive responses to landscape changes. Upward trends occur in turbine height, impact accumulation, placement in agricultural landscapes, construction delays, and new farms built per year. Downward trends occur in the number of turbines per farm, visual disruption of protected areas, and placement in wetlands. Key patterns in stakeholder groups’ adaptations include conflicting interpretations of landscape amenities and evolution, and expanded community outreach, networking, and public participation after exposure to infrastructure. Stakeholders adapt to existing infrastructure separately from adapting strategies to respond to new wind farms. Overall, a mutual relationship emerges wherein landscape changes from wind farms respond to policies and stakeholder activities, while policies and stakeholder groups adapt to the physical realities of landscape change.

Westerly breezes and easterly gales: A comparison of legal, policy and planning regimes governing onshore wind in Germany and China

Wind energy is supposed to be one of the energy generation pioneers in the context of energy transition due to its high performance, wide resource distribution, and competitive prices. However, the development of onshore wind energy has been hampered by the limited availability of land and unreasonable spatial planning. This paper compares the wind energy roadmaps of Germany and China from the perspective of administration, legislation, policy, and planning regimes. Supported by the sound administrative system, both countries have complete legal frameworks, categorized as energy, planning, and environmental aspects. Abundant policies (e.g., development plan, financial incentives, and wild animal protection) promulgated by the central and local authorities flexibly support the promotion of wind energy. The differentiation between the two countries in planning and permitting procedures is attributed to the differentiation in spatial planning systems and relevant regulations. Germany has more flexible regulations and decrees at state and local levels, while China has stronger execution and high efficiency based on unified governance. It is recommended that more delicate regulations and standards issued for Chinese wind development promotion, especially the contents of spatial planning and environmental protection.

Community Acceptance of Wind Energy Developments: Experience from Wind Energy Scarce Regions in Europe

Renewable energy plays an important role in the transition to a low emission society, yet in many regions energy projects have resulted in increasing societal polarization. Based on a comprehensive literature review and a survey among stakeholders from specific regions in Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Spain with little prior experience with wind energy, we highlight six categories of factors that shape community acceptance of onshore wind energy development: technical characteristics of wind energy projects, environmental impacts, economic impacts, societal impacts, contextual factors and individual characteristics. We identify key similarities in acceptance-related patterns of wind energy development across the selected regions, but also important differences, highlighting the very context-specific nature of community acceptance. The findings contribute to improving the understanding of the forces, factors and relationships at play between policy frameworks and perceptions of wind energy under different conditions. We conclude by proposing policy recommendations regarding measures to increase the positive impacts and reduce the negative impacts of wind energy projects, and to strengthen existing drivers and reduce barriers to community acceptance of wind energy development.

Wind energy development and wildlife conservation in Lithuania: A mapping tool for conflict assessment.

The paper presents a mapping tool aiming to identify and minimise potential conflicts between onshore wind energy development and wildlife conservation in Lithuania. It merges current information on the distribution, conservation status and sensitivity of birds and bats to wind power with an integrated evaluation of wind resources (modelled wind speed), special planning status and technical perspectives of wind energy development. The paper includes assessment of the selected wildlife species which were described as sensitive to wind power (69 breeding and 43 migratory bird species and 17 bat species bats in the country). Used species level information allowed the precise identification of sensitive territories and might be used to mitigate negative wind farm effects using special measures based on species behavior. Finally, we delivered overlaps as possible conflicts among the most promising wind farm areas and the areas with high sensitivity in relation to bird and bat distribution. These overlaps point to the required attention and relevant decisions that are needed to ensure sustainable development of wind energy throughout the country. We suggest this tool for initial determination of appropriate areas for wind energy development in the country and as supplement to Environmental Impact Assessment.

How much wind power potential does europe have? Examining european wind power potential with an enhanced socio-technical atlas

The continuous development of onshore wind farms is an important feature of the European transition towards an energy system powered by distributed renewables and low-carbon resources. This study assesses and simulates potential for future onshore wind turbine installations throughout Europe. The study depicts, via maps, all the national and regional socio-technical restrictions and regulations for wind project development using spatial analysis conducted through GIS. The inputs for the analyses were based on an original dataset compiled from satellites and public databases relating to electricity, planning, and other dimensions. Taking into consideration socio-technical constraints, which restricts 54% of the combined land area in Europe, the study reveals a nameplate capacity of 52.5 TW of untapped onshore wind power potential in Europe - equivalent to 1 MW per 16 European citizens – a supply that would be sufficient to cover the global all-sector energy demand from now through to 2050. The study offers a more rigorous, multi-dimensional, and granular atlas of onshore wind energy development that can assist with future energy policy, research, and planning.

Onshore wind and the likelihood of planning acceptance: Learning from a Great Britain context

Geospatial modelling is extensively used to identify suitable sites for the installation of onshore wind turbines, with the starting point being the estimate of exploitable resource. However, there are concerns that such approaches do not accurately consider the social issues surrounding such projects, resulting in large numbers of projects subsequently being rejected at the planning permission stage. Using the location of 1721 historic wind turbine planning applications in Great Britain, this paper explores whether the planning success of proposed wind turbine projects can be better predicted using a range of geospatial, social and political parameters. The results indicate that the size of the project, local demographics and the proximity to existing wind turbines are key influences affecting planning approval. The paper demonstrates that quantitatively linking local social and political data enhances the prediction of the planning outcome of wind turbine proposals, and highlights that geospatial parameters are necessary but in isolation, not sufficient for assessing the suitability of potential sites. These results also suggest that national policy is restricting the development of onshore wind energy in regions which appear generally supportive of wind energy.

Discovering the new renewable legal order in Poland: with or without wind?

Poland has been praised for the development of onshore wind energy in recent years. This may be stopped by the act on the investments in wind power plants of May 2016. Seemingly it looks like a typical regulation concerning spatial planning. However, its provisions raise many controversies, as in practice it does not address running wind investments but rather blocking them. The new law eliminates several investment opportunities in terms of land for their construction (inter alia, because of a buffer zone enacted in the new legislation). These circumstances are highlighted in my paper in which I delve into the legislative process related to the investment act, providing analysis of the initial proposal and the current law in force, as well as listing the controversies and burdens imposed on the wind energy sector.

Low-income resident’s preferences for the location of wind turbine farms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

There is a general consensus that South Africa should be generating more power through harnessing renewable energy resources, such as wind power. However, there is no consensus with regard to the location of such generating projects. This paper describes a wind farm project proposed for development in the Kouga Local Municipality, reports low-income local residents’ preferences on its nature and applies choice modelling to analyse these preferences. A questionnaire was presented to each respondent, the discrete choice experiment component of the questionnaire included two different onshore wind energy development scenarios and a status quo option. The scenarios differed by the combination of four elements: the distance of the wind turbines from residential areas, job creation, the number of turbines and a subsidy allocated to each household.

Wind of Change or Wind of Challenges: Implementation factors regarding wind energy development, an international perspective

Countries promoting renewable energies encounter a variety of phenomena that can challenge the implementation of further onshore wind energy development. Those challenges can be observed in many multi-level governance systems, as exhibited in the U.S., Germany, and Mexico, where various regulatory and institutional levels must agree on goals and responsibilities. This is a challenge, as both forms of governance (top-down and bottom-up dominated) are present in wind energy planning and policy. (1) Political and market phenomena, (2) siting issues, (3) the vs. dilemma, and (4) social acceptance are selected challenges within the different levels of decision-making processes in wind energy implementation. (1) Political and financial factors can influence the development by implementing incentive- and market-based policies, command-and-control policies, and feed-in tariffs. However, success of these policy designs for renewable energies is based on different political environments, and their electricity markets nationally, regionally, or statewide. (2) Spatial limitations in planning are created based on limited land availability due to conflicts with other land uses such as aviation, nature reserves, residential areas, their respective buffers. (3) The vs. green dilemma involves the incoherent relationship between policies promoting renewable energies with policies protection species and their environments, becoming a major point of concern during siting and operations of wind energy. (4) Lastly, while there is a general overall support for wind energy, social acceptance on a local level is influenced by institutional settings i.e. information availability, as well as public and stakeholder concerns. Involvement in decision-making as well as financial participation (e.g. community-ownership) affects public participation and acceptance. This paper goes into detail on these phenomena and discusses case studies in Europe and North America. Often, these challenges can enhance outlooks in policy and planning, posing solutions to wind energy challenges even in sensitive environments and triggering innovations such as adaptive management.

Wind energy planning in England, Wales and Denmark: Factors influencing project success

Land-use planning poses a significant barrier to the further development of on-shore wind energy in many countries. There has been increasing discussion regarding the use of public participation in the planning process in order to address concerns of local residents and ease conflicts. This research explores the dynamics of the planning process for wind energy in England, Wales and Denmark in order to better understand the factors influencing project success. Through 18 in-depth case studies, it investigates the degree of local community participation in the planning process and the stability of the network of individuals and organisations involved in the project to determine their relationship to the public's acceptance of the project and the planning outcome. The study draws on the frameworks of public participation in planning and actor-network theories in order to develop indicators of the level of community involvement and network formation for each case. The analysis discusses predictions made by the theoretical approaches as to the importance of these variables to the success of new projects. The results indicate that projects with high levels of participatory planning are more likely to be publicly accepted and successful. In addition, stable supporting networks are more likely to form. The presence of a stable network of supporters is not found to be related to project acceptance and success; however, the absence of a stable network of opponents is found to be necessary for project acceptance and success in receiving planning permission.